Requirements for the Major and Minor in History (HIS)

Requirements for the Major

The major in History leads to the Bachelor of Arts degree. All courses taken to meet Requirements A and B must be taken for a letter grade. No grade lower than C may be applied toward the major. At least 12 credits in Requirement A must be taken within the Department of History at Stony Brook.

Completion of the major requires 39 credits.

A. Study within the Area of the Major A minimum of 11 courses (33 credits) distributed as follows: 1. Two courses at the 100 level 2. A primary field of five courses to be selected from one of the following: United States, European, Asian, Latin American, ancient and medieval, or global history. Primary fields developed along topical or thematic lines may be selected with approval of the Department's undergraduate director. The primary field shall be distributed as follows: Two courses at the 200 level Two courses at the 300 leve One course at the 400 level, excluding HIS 447, HIS 487, HIS 488, HIS 495, and HIS 4963. HIS 301 is a required course for all history majors and must be taken prior to the 400-level seminar. 4. Three courses selected from outside the primary field and above the 100 level, with at least one of these courses at the 300 or 400 level.

B. Courses in a Related Discipline Two upper-division courses in one discipline, the discipline to be selected with departmental approval. Courses that are crosslisted with a history course do not satisfy this requirement.

C. Upper-Division Writing Requirement Students are required to complete one upper-division course from Group A (study within the area of the major) by the end of their junior year. They must inform the instructor of the course in advance of their plan to use the term paper (or papers) in fulfillment of the writing requirement for the major. In addition to the grade for the course, the instructor makes a second evaluation of writing competency in the field of history. If the second evaluation is favorable, the paper will be submitted to the Undergraduate Director for final approval.

Notes: 1. No transferred course with a grade lower than C may be applied toward Requirement A.

The Honors Program in History

Departmental majors with a minimum g.p.a. of 3.50 in history courses and related disciplines as specified in the major requirements are eligible to enroll in the History honors program at the beginning of their senior year.

The student, after asking a faculty member to be a sponsor, must submit a proposal to the Department indicating the merit of the planned research. The supervising faculty member must also submit a statement supporting the student's proposal. This must be done in the semester prior to the beginning of the project.

The honors paper resulting from a student's research is read by two historians and a member of another department, as arranged by the director of undergraduate studies. If the paper is judged to be of unusual merit and the student's record warrants such a determination, the De­partment recommends honors.

Requirements for the Minor

The minor is organized around one particular area of history (of the student’s choice), defined either by geography (e.g., United States, Latin America) or topic (e.g., imperialism, social change). Courses offered for the minor must be taken for a letter grade. All courses offered for the minor must be passed with a grade of C or higher.

Completion of the minor requires 21 credits. At least nine of the 21 credits must be taken at Stony Brook, with three of the courses at the upper-division level. The specific distribution of the credits should be determined in consultation with the director of undergraduate studies. An example of an acceptable distribution would be the following:

A. Two 100-level HIS courses B. Two 200-level courses in field of concentration C. Three 300-level courses in field of concentration, with option of substituting one 400-level course for one of the three 300-level courses